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Study of the Text 9-28-12

9-28-12
34 Miracles restore the mind to its fullness. By atoning for lack they establish perfect protection. The spirit’s strength leaves no room for intrusions. 

As we perform miracles our mind is returned to its natural state. It knows no lack and knows no fear. It is strong and invulnerable and nothing from the ego thought system of separation can distract or confuse it. This is the purpose of miracles, to bring us to our right mind. This is inevitable for each and every one of us. Nothing can prevent this from happening.

I see that I made a mistake in the past when I discounted miracles that I experienced because they didn’t seem big and showy. I did not yet understand the nature of miracles. I didn’t even recognize the miracle when it happened through me, but it didn’t matter. The miracle still did its job and my mind continued to heal.

Once when I was working a man came in and started looking around. When I offered to help he began telling me the story of his troubled life. I had no idea what to say. I did not at that time have much of a spiritual practice, had not yet found A Course in Miracles, but I instinctively asked within for help. I opened my mouth and said just the right thing. I was amazed and never forgot that even though I did not understand the significance of what had happened.

In responding to the desire to be helpful I joined with my brother in a shared purpose, and a holy instant occurred. I willingly stepped back and allowed an intelligence greater than mine to move through me. I was truly helpful. I didn’t know how to do any of this or even that it was possible. I didn’t know what it meant to do this. And yet, it was done because I responded to a deeply buried, but strong impulse toward miracles. It was done simply because I allowed it.

That encounter was a miracle whether I acknowledged it as such or not.  The miracle requires so little of us. In fact, when I was so strongly identified with the personality self I am sure I would have been dismayed to discover how very little was required of me. ~smile~ Now I am very happy to know that my job is to desire miracles, and when guided to do so, to allow them to be done through me.

© 2012, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Study of the Text 9-27-12

9-27-12
33 Miracles honor you because you are loveable. They dispel illusions about yourself and perceive the light in you. They thus atone for your errors by freeing you from your nightmares. By releasing your mind from the imprisonment of your illusions, they restore your sanity.

I have imprisoned my will, the will I share with God. I have closed off all memory of that glorious Self so that I could have a realistic experience of being separate. I have done such a good job of this. My experience feels so real. I can hardly believe that I am not a being in a body with its own separate will. It seems so realistic, all this emotion, the anger and fear, the shame, jealousy, suffering, disappointment. And then the wild swing to pleasures of all kinds only to plummet into bitter disappointment as I realize the pleasure is never permanent. Wow! What a ride this turned out to be. I don’t remember my true nature yet, but what an extraordinary and powerful being I must be to have done this.

When I chose to plunge into this freewheeling experience of feeling separate from God, I knew it wasn’t real, but also knew that I would forget that it was not real, and so I left a key in my mind, a way to extricate myself from the dream world I had made. As my mind became ready to be released from this self-imposed prison, I would find the key. The key would begin unlocking prison doors; not all at once, but one at a time at first, so I could slowly back out of the stories. It would be too startling, to jarring, to just pop out of it.

For the Myron character this seemed to begin as an awareness that things are not as they seem. Then various books and teachers showed up in her life to point to different ways to see things. She slowly became aware of an alternative Voice in her mind, one that began to reveal her true nature. This same thing, with variations, began to happen for, first a few, then more and more of us. Because all of these characters are from the same mind, the more of them that awaken, the easier it is for the rest. I am in awe of the first few of us to hear that Voice and follow it. That could not have been easy. Now there are so many of us waking up that the mind responds more quickly and easily.

A couple of days ago I had the beginnings of a migraine. It was an intensely painful headache and nausea. I immediately took a pill because my experience is that I have to catch it quickly or it can last up to three days. I seemed fine until I woke up the next day and it was back. I didn’t want to take another pill because I had to go to work. Suddenly I had the thought that this headache is not real. I allowed the thoughts to come to me.

Where did this headache come from? There is no power in the body to make a head ache. There is no power in the environment or in the food I eat to trigger a headache. There is no power in pills to ease the headache. The only power that exists is within me. The headache and the nausea simply vanished. Poof. It was gone. It could not stand against the truth. Really, what happened is that I wanted to know the truth, I wanted my true Self to be released from the prison of false thoughts I had designed to hide my Self from my self. And so this is what happened. “Nothing occurs but represents your wish, and nothing is omitted that you choose.” WB L152

The miracle that I experienced occurred because of the decision to know the truth. I decided I wanted to know the truth about this headache. I set aside all I thought I knew about migraines and the way the world works. I stepped out of the bounds of time and space and the laws of the world, and fully accepted that I am under no laws but God’s. I ignored all I taught myself, all the proof I had provided for myself that the world is real and its law’s immutable. That was a miracle. The effect of the miracle was the instant release from pain.

Now here is the tricky part, the part where confusion is most likely to obscure the truth. I am happy I decided not to have a migraine. In the story which I am still experiencing, Myron is mostly concerned with freedom from pain. I am still identified with that persona, so I am happy, too. However, I am not as identified with her as before and I am also identified, perhaps more identified, with spirit. I know that the miracle happened in the mind. Both body and pain are an illusion and so can’t be healed. The miracle was in the change of mind that precipitated the change in the illusion. My experience has been that when the change in mind occurs there is usually a change in the illusion, which only makes sense because the illusion is an effect of the mind.

I stood there in the middle of the floor feeling intense gratitude as I felt no pain and as I realized that I would never again be able to blindly accept that I am under laws that were made to bind me to the illusion. I still feel pain just as I still have ego thoughts, and I asked for enlightenment about this. The feeling and thought that came to me was that the miracles would continue to flow through me and that I can wait in certainty for complete healing. No worries. I suppose I am still unlocking doors, one at a time.

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Study of the Text 9-26-12

9-26-12
32 I inspire all miracles, which are really intercessions. They intercede for your holiness and make your perceptions holy. By placing you beyond the physical laws they raise you into the sphere of celestial order. In this order you are perfect.

“Thank you, Jesus.” I feel a lot of gratitude this morning as I read these words. Jesus inspires the miracles that are becoming more common place in my life. When I am identified with the Myron character I don’t feel holy or perfect. But through this persona I am inspired by Jesus to express my desire to let go of the ego wish for a separate will. When I do this, and to the degree to which I do this, I am placed beyond the physical laws of the world, and so miracles abound because as my Self I am perfect.

I understand now that miracles are the result of knowing I am under no laws but God’s. My friends and I were talking about unusual phenomenon that seems to occur around some highly awakened individuals. Some of this unusual phenomenon seems more extraordinary than others, and yet, is it really?

If someone seems to hover above the floor, or manifest physical objects out of nothing, or heal the sick or raise the dead, what have they done? In each case they have simply manipulated matter. They have ignored the laws of the world because they know these laws are made up and not real. 

A friend of mine once watched her hand disappear while doing the first four lessons. One might argue that while this was a unique and convincing experience for her, it is hardly the same thing as healing a leper. But there is no difference. In both cases the only thing that happened is that belief in the world as reality is at least, temporarily, suspended.

There is no order of difficulty in miracles. A miracle occurs when the mind, to some degree and for that moment at least, is healed. That healed mind then manifests a different world, a world that reflects its true nature, which is ephemeral. It is not real and its laws are not binding.

When with the body’s eyes I look at the world I see solid objects, and with an unhealed mind I believe this is the only reality. I see it, therefore it must be real. As the mind becomes healed, and begins to awaken from its dream state, the solidity of form begins to waver. It is not form that changes, of course, but rather an awakened mind remembers that form is nothing.

An awakened mind begins to remember that it is not subject to form, but is the maker of form. In this state of mind, manipulation of form is simple. I suppose from a fully awakened state, the mind does not see the manipulation of form as miraculous, just normal and maybe interesting. While still in thrall to the idea of separation and form as reality, it absolutely appears miraculous.

The value of experiencing miracles at this time is that they provide conviction that I am beyond physical laws. Somewhere I am being gently shaken awake with these miracles that have been inserted into my dream through my own true desire. Some part of my Self is shaking me and saying, “Wake up, sleepy head. Let go of your silly dream and join the rest of Us here in the Celestial Realm, you holy and perfect Son of God.”

© 2012, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Study of the Text 9-25-12

9-25-12
31 Miracles should inspire gratitude, not awe. You should thank God for what you really are. The children of God are holy and the miracle honors their holiness, which can be hidden but never lost.

If I see a miracle, or experience a miracle and feel awe, it is because I don’t really believe I am holy. Miracles are not a special gift to us; they are our right because of who we are. When I don’t experience miracles I should be surprised, not the other way around.

I was thinking about times when I experienced miracles. Once I was caught up in a grievance. I was so angry with someone that I could not imagine ever forgiving them. I hated that feeling and wanted so much to be free of it, but then I would think about how wrong that person was and how much they hurt me. I prayed and prayed and tried affirmations and cried, and nothing happened for the longest time.

Then one day I didn’t want that grievance. I didn’t care who was right. I didn’t care if I seemed to be hurt. I just didn’t want it. The miracle occurred. Years, literally years, of anger, frustration, hatred, guilt and fear just melted away as if they had never been. It was immediate and complete and it happened because that is what I wanted. Am I powerful, or what?

The miracle could not be forced on me or torn from me. But the moment I wanted it without reservation, it was mine. I was reminded of this while reading a novel yesterday. It is called A Discovery of Witches. In it a young witch has been spell-bound. For the longest time she could not use her magic.

She remembered being able to use magic long ago when she was just a child, but that ended when she was seven and lost her parents. Then when she opened an ancient manuscript she began to experience her magic, but only what seemed to be in a random way. Eventually she discovers she is spell-bound and the spell keeps her magic from being forced from her by anyone, even herself.

The reason the magic sometimes works is because it only works when she needs it. It seemed random because sometimes the need was minor and so she didn’t put the two things together. She would try to make a spell work, but no matter how hard she tried to force the magic nothing happened. But she would need a book from the shelf and it would appear next to her. So she learned to relax and not worry about the magic, knowing it would be there when she needed it.

This was how the miracle of the disappearing grievance happened for me. I have power beyond imagining and can and do make things appear and disappear. In fact nothing occurs without my consent. But my power is “spell-bound.” For reasons of my own I wanted to experience life as if I were not an unlimited being and so enchanted myself. My power cannot be forced from me, not even by myself. The Holy Spirit can only point the way; He cannot force me to be my Self.

Like the witch in my story I too am on a quest to find the answer to this spell. She is following clues and being supported by those who love her. Part of the answer lies in joining with another person to find the solution and this joining in a single purpose is an essential part in unbinding her magic. Sound familiar?

The witch in the story finds many clues in an ancient manuscript and I find my clues in A Course in Miracles. It is peppered with reminders of who I am, but like the witch I am reading about, I at first did not understand them. This is because I have really believed my experience of being powerless meant that I was powerless, just as she really believed she could not do magic because she was not doing it.

In order to regain her magic the witch had to stop trying to force it, and in order to regain my power I had to learn that I could not make it happen but I could allow it to happen. My power responds to my undivided will, or another way to say it is that my desire must be whole.

It turns out she could have magic when she needed it. I have miracles when I truly want them. Her magic could not be forced and my power cannot be forced. Like my witch, discovering my power has created conviction in that power.

The reason I had to wait for so long for the miracle of a healed grievance is because I didn’t really want it, not if it meant giving up my resentment and letting the other person off the hook. What I was really praying for was that the other person should remain guilty.

The problem with that was I had to remain in the prison of guilt to which I had condemned the other person. After all, I couldn’t take my eyes off the hate in case he escaped from it. It was insane behavior for a person who claimed to want freedom from pain and suffering. I could not force the situation to resolve, but the moment my desire for freedom was complete, the prison disappeared and we were both freed. Just like that! It was a miracle.

© 2012, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Study of the Text 9-24-12

9-24-12
30 By recognizing spirit, miracles adjust the levels of perception and show them in proper alignment. This places spirit at the center, where it can communicate directly.

As I realized that I am spirit I began to hear the Voice for God. The more I have listened to that Voice the stronger it has become. This is spirit at the center.

Holy Spirit, what would you have me know about this?

Holy Spirit: You do not need to know how this works, and it would not be possible to completely explain this in words. Your desire and acceptance are what is needed to allow this to happen. From desire it flows naturally and will flow until impeded by non-acceptance.

Me: Is this like when I desired to know who I was, but could not believe I was ready?

Holy Spirit: Yes. Your doubt was the block that kept the process stalled.  In a holy instant, born of desire and faith, you joined with your sister in purpose and what you call a “shift” occurred. Do you recall doing anything to make this happen?

Me: No. I simply said, “Yes.” Everything else just happened. After that there was still doubt in my mind, but it was like a shadow, there but not there. I felt like waiting to see what would happen, knowing that what would happen would be perfect and the timing would be perfect. It was joyful.

Holy Spirit: You must protect your decision by making it again daily. You will find this effortless and just as joyful if you dedicate a few moments of time each morning and each evening for this purpose. Do not feel the pressure to do something in those moments. Your desire to give that time is all that is needed. The rest will be done for you.

Me: Here is how it feels. I learned that when I didn’t know what to do to be happy I could ask You and You would guide me to the right action, or all that was causing my distress would just dissolve away. These were miraculous moments. I began to do this more and more until there were fewer instances of stubbornness, where I thought I didn’t need help.

Then it seemed that I was doing this almost without any gaps at all, but I couldn’t figure out what to do next. I knew that I could step aside completely but I didn’t know how. I just kept asking You to help me. That is when my sister stepped forward to offer me her hand. Through her You told me that I could just be where I longed to be.

If I were to describe it I would say that instead of continually stepping aside and allowing You to lead when I was in trouble, I simply stepped aside. Now You are at the helm. You are the unwavering Presence in my mind. Even when I have moments of confusion, I am never confused about that. I know that the only thing that happens when I feel confused is that I am looking out at the world through the ego’s eyes. It’s means nothing and I stop. I laugh when I think how hard I made this seem in the past.

I will protect my certainty as You suggested. I want You at the center. I want You to speak through me, to be my eyes and ears. I want only Your perception. Why would I want anything else, now that I have had it? With You at the center it feels like “I” am not really standing aside, but that “I” have dissolved away along with the unhappiness.

I used to be afraid that this would happen, afraid of the thought that “I” would disappear into You. Now I long for that process to be complete. What a delight to discover that it isn’t scary at all and that I have lost nothing.

© 2012, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Study of the Text 9-21-12

9-21-12
28 Miracles are a way of earning release from fear. Revelation induces a state in which fear has already been abolished. Miracles are thus a means and revelation is an end.

This one is pretty simple. Through revelation we have no fear. But how do we get to revelations? We get there through miracles. So how do we get to miracles? We do not make miracles happen anymore than we make revelations happen. However, miracles occur because we have made our mind ready for them.

I experienced a couple of miraculous physical healings. I did not do this through making the body ready through exercise or healthy food. I didn’t do it through magic words such as affirmations. However, when I added conviction to those words, I became ready for a miracle to occur through me.

When I first began my study of the Course there were many passages that I knew were meaningful but that I could not accept. For example, the Course has always said there is no pain, but my mind was so filled with the belief in the body as real that I could not understand what the Course was talking about.

I had to continue my study and my practice and hear the same thing in many ways before I had emptied my mind of the belief in the body as reality enough to even begin to accept the truth that I am spirit and not body. This “emptiness” made a place for the truth, and the truth led to miracles. Miracles then lead to revelation, which is direct communication from God to us. This communication induces a state of fearlessness.

29 Miracles praise God through you. They praise Him by honoring His creations, affirming their perfection. They heal because they deny body-identification and affirm spirit-identification.

First let me look at the opposite of the miracle. I see my son hurt his back and so he must find some treatment that will correct the damage done. I pray that he will find the right doctor. I pray that he will have no more pain.  In my more enlightened moment I pray he will accept a miracle. But all thoughts are prayer and so because I believe in the body so strongly, I also pray that he cannot be healed without the right treatment and I pray that treatment is not available to him and so he will suffer all his life. And even if he receives a miracle, I know he doesn’t believe in them and so I pray he can’t accept it. Yikes!

However, since I study and practice the Course which tells me that I am not a body and that I am under no laws but God’s, I begin the process of emptying my mind of the false beliefs that were the source of my fearful prayers, my prayers to the idol that I had allowed to take the place of my Creator. As I make room for the truth it rises in my mind and the Power that is God is manifested through me as a miracle. I am told that a healed mind is no small thing, and my experience is convincing.

My belief in ego manifests the fear and body-identification that was the source of those crazy prayers for pain and suffering. While thinking with the ego mind I was worshipping an idol. As I allowed my mind to be healed, I denied the body-identification, and began to know myself as spirit. While identified with body I can only hope for relief; identified with spirit I expect miracles. In the first my praise was directed toward the ego as the maker of the body, but in the miracle I praise God as I honor His creation of me as spirit.

Every time I experience pain in my neck or believe in my son’s back injury, but then turn my face from those illusions to the truth that I am as I was created and so is my son, I praise God. I praise Him through my certainty that His creation cannot be undone. If I see any part of His creation as sick and broken, I must be mistaken. I must be dreaming. This cannot be.

There cannot be pain, suffering or death because there is God and only God. When my mind wanders to the scary stuff of ego thoughts of separation, I shake myself awake and remember I am spirit, I am the perfect creation of a perfect God and nothing else can be true. I praise God as I allow the truth to fill my mind and the miracle to manifest in my life.

© 2012, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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Study of the Text 9-20-12

9-20-12
27 A miracle is a universal blessing from God through me to all my brothers. It is the privilege of the forgiven to forgive.

My son hurt his back several years ago and he is still in pain. Sometimes the pain is very intense as it has been lately. Last night I was thinking about him and I was filled with concern for him. I wanted him to be healed of this injury so much and to be finally free from this pain. I also had the thought this might not happen for him. I know someone who has suffered all his adult life from a back injury with no relief. Suddenly I was filled with fear for my son.

I reminded myself that I am creating this feeling of fear and anxiety for my son. The whole story of my son injured and in pain is a construction of the mind as is everything we think of as the world. It is made up. It is not real. There is no power outside the mind, not in the body or in anything.

Holy Spirit, I forgive myself for seeing myself as separate from You. I forgive myself for seeing myself and others as bodies. I forgive myself for seeing Toby as a body. I forgive myself for seeing myself as separate from Toby and separate from others. Please come into my mind and undo what I have done.

After praying I felt the knot in my stomach loosen. I allowed my thoughts to be corrected and the peace of God flood my mind. True thoughts began to surface in my mind and I knew that forgiveness was moving from God through me to my son. It is the privilege of the forgiven to forgive.

How will this affect Toby’s story? I don’t know as it is up to him to accept the healing. My story is my business. His story is his business. However, here is something I have noticed. As we begin to undo the ego through forgiveness, our acceptance spreads through the mind and makes it easier for others to accept as well.

This is why it will not take an endless amount of time for us to wake up as it would seem if each and every person had to come to this place of acceptance starting from a completely confused mind. We do share one mind and when you experience a healing of that mind, I am aware of the healing as well. This may not happen on a conscious level, but it does happen.

Perhaps the next time I decide to let go of a grievance I will be surprised at how easily I forgive. But however it appears in any individual story, each person’s healing has uplifted us all. Each time any of us choose forgiveness we make it easier and more likely that Toby, too will choose to forgive his belief in pain, suffering and death.

© 2012, Pathways of Light. https://www.pathwaysoflight.org
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